Rules are there to be broken. Most ceremonies last half an hour: Fiona and Phil’s took ten minutes. Most brides arrive with their dads. Phil and Fiona spent a happy half hour with all their guests before the ceremony. Most guests get to sit down: at Fiona and Phil’s, there was standing room only. Most couples take … Continue Reading
This lovely thank you card reminded me why I’ll never forget Ellie and Neil’s wedding.Ellie’s mum Catrin gave a reading of a poem by Edward Lear that had been Ellie’s favourite as a child. It’s called the Quangle Wangle Quee, and what made it so special was that Catrin was actually wearing the Quangle Wangle Quee’s hat! Thanks Ellie and Neil … Continue Reading
When we want to talk about love, we tend to get tongue-tied. That’s when we turn for help to the poets, because they have the gift of expressing our thoughts and feelings better than we can ourselves. Few living poets do this better than Edward Monkton I first heard his poem, A Lovely Love Story, … Continue Reading
The story of your relationship, from first encounter to the moment you both say ‘I do’ is an important part of your ceremony, and there are lots of different ways of telling it. Earlier this year, at Sophie and Neal’s wedding in the Royal Botanic Garden one of their friends, Jamie Hall, came up with a really … Continue Reading
We had the best day ever and a big contributing factor to that was being able to have a ceremony that reflected our views and beliefs and allowed us to authentically stand in front of our friends and family and make our vows.
reading the ceremony reminded me of all the ways in which a humanist wedding can be made uniquely personal.
As Burns wrote to his friend Robert Muir, “These, my worthy friend, are my ideas. . . It becomes a man of sense to think for himself; particularly in a case where all men are equally interested, and where, indeed, all men are equally in the dark.” Today is the 251st anniversary of his birth; … Continue Reading
What’s your definition of a romantic location? At one point I might have gone for the obvious one – palm trees swaying over a deserted tropical beach, but from now on, it’s the roofless ruin of Melrose Abbey, in the white light of a freezing cold Saturday afternoon in February. Only a true romantic would … Continue Reading
I was rather surprised to get a call last week from my local paper, The Edinburgh Evening News, asking me to tell them something about my work as a Humanist Celebrant. Among other things, they asked me to sum up the city in three words and for the life of me, I couldn’t think of … Continue Reading
As you can see, this wedding was a real hoot! Dan and Amani put a lot of thought into their big day, and their first good idea was to hold it out at Mavis Hall Park, a real working farm at the foot of the Lammermuir Hills. Juliet has been there several times and she’d … Continue Reading